Environmental clearance for Sesa Goa's Pirna project cancelled

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The government has cancelled environmental clearance granted to Vedanta-owned Sesa Goa for the Pirna iron ore mine, accusing it of suppressing information in its environment impact assessment study. The ministry's decision to revoke the clearance is the outcome of an appeal by Pirna-Nadora Nagrik Kruti Samiti and Umesh Naik before the National Green Tribunal.

The Vedanta-owned Sesa Goa had applied for environmental clearance to extract 0.20 million tonnes per annum in 43 hectares in Pirna and Nadora of Goa. The environmental clearance had been granted in June 2009, after examining documents and details provided by the project proponent and also on the recommendation of the expert appraisal committee (EAC) constituted under provisions of EIA notification 2006.

"The cancellation of the environment clearance by the Ministry of Environment and Forests for the Pirna lease, which is a very small mine with only 0.20 mtpa capacity, is an old issue, where Sesa Goa had voluntarily withdrawn its application for EC when it was discovered that our application was deficient on some counts. No mining has occurred at the said mine even though the environment clearance was granted more than 3 years back. Mining at Pirna lease was never considered as part our business plans," a company spokesperson said. The ministry in its order revoking the clearance said that Sesa Goa had submitted a deficient EIA report.

The ministry said that a case "deliberate concealment and/or submission of false or misleading information or data" in the application of could be made against the company on the basis of the findings of a sub-committee during its site visit.

The EIA notification 2006 makes it clear that concealment or submission of false information can lead to rejection or cancellation of prior environmental clearance. At a personal hearing in late July, the company accepted that there were deficiencies in the EIA study it had submitted.

The Pirna-Nadora Nagrik Kruti Samiti and Umesh Naik appeal before the National Environment Appellate Authority, later subsumed into the National Green Tribunal, alleged that Sesa Goa had misrepresented facts regarding the location of the proposed mine near residential areas and Chapora river.

The tribunal had directed the ministry to constitute a sub-committee to undertake a site visit and examine the reasons for wholesale public opposition to the mining and to re-examine its impact on agriculture, horticulture, school children, health, habitation, river and groundwater.

The subcommittee's report was considered by the expert appraisal committee in late June last year.